From nuclear disaster to Chernobyl's booming tourism

A Soviet-era sign welcomes visitors to the city of Chernobyl. [Blake Sifton/Al Jazeera]

Three decades since a reactor at the Chernobyl power plant exploded in one of history's worst nuclear disasters, tourists are flocking to the site in Ukraine, drawn by the chance to see the epicentre of a catastrophe that gripped the world's attention.

On April 26, 1986 reactor No 4 exploded while scientists were conducting a safety test. The explosion and subsequent fire sent clouds of radioactive smoke across the USSR and into Europe.

Known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the towns and villages within a 30-kilometre radius around the destroyed reactor were evacuated of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants following the disaster.

In 2011, the Ukrainian government opened the Exclusion Zone to tourists over the age of 18. It remains one of the most radioactive places on Earth, though authorities insist it is now safe to visit.

Reclaimed by nature

About 50,000 people visited the Exclusion Zone last year, more than triple the number who came in 2015. An estimated 60 percent of the visitors are foreigners. In the Exclusion Zone, they find abandoned Soviet cities frozen in time and once-bustling urban centres reclaimed by nature.

The Exclusion Zone is governed by a separate legal entity from the rest of Ukraine and passports are thoroughly checked as visitors pass through two checkpoints into the area. On the way out, everyone must clear two rounds of radiation control, in which scanners check for radioactive dust.

Most visitors employ the services of a handful of tour companies who run buses to Chernobyl two hours north of Kiev. For a small fee, they also provide tourists with their own Geiger counters to measure radiation levels.

Sergei Mirnyi is the founder of the largest Chernobyl tour company. In 1986 he was working as a chemist in Kharkiv, Ukraine when the Chernobyl disaster unfolded. He was drafted into service as a commander of a radiation reconnaissance military unit and spent weeks in Chernobyl measuring levels of radioactivity in some of the most contaminated areas.

Enlightenment tool

Myrnyi said it's his responsibility to spread awareness of what took place at Chernobyl, and visitors take away more from the experience than the momentary thrill of so-called "dark tourism".

"I happened to be in this important place at the right time in the right position with the right qualifications to be a well-informed witness," he told Al Jazeera.

"Tourism is a very powerful enlightenment tool. Many people leave Chernobyl with a different perspective than they arrived with."

Mirnyi said the majority of the visitors are between 25-40 years of age and that the tourism has led to greater open-mindedness.

"The generations that lived through Chernobyl were terrified by the disaster. For the new generations, Chernobyl is an important event that they can view logically in a historical context."

Nuclear reactors and the cooling pond at the Chernobyl power plant, site of the explosion and fire on April 26, 1986. The destroyed reactor No 4 is covered in steel (pictured left). Other reactors at the power plant remained in operation for years after the disaster. The last was closed in 2000. [Blake Sifton/Al Jazeera]

A tour guide measures radiation levels with a Geiger counter near the heavily contaminated Red Forest. Despite the high levels, tour company founder Sergei Mirnyi says, "During a one-day visit to the Exclusion Zone you receive only as much gamma radiation as you do during a two-hour flight in a passenger jet." [Blake Sifton/Al Jazeera]

Belongings lie discarded in an abandoned home in the village of Kopachi. Residents were instructed to take clothing and supplies for three days when their towns and villages in the Exclusion Zone were evacuated. Authorities told them they would be allowed to return soon, most never were. [Blake Sifton/Al Jazeera]

Bunk beds in an abandoned kindergarten in the village of Kopachi. [Blake Sifton/Al Jazeera]

Looters who snuck into the Exclusion Zone eventually stole everything of value from deserted homes, going as far as ripping pipes from the floors and tearing wiring from walls. [Blake Sifton/Al Jazeera]

An abandoned hotel in the city of Pripyat near the nuclear power plant. The city’s 50,000 residents were not initially made aware of the disaster and the evacuation did not begin until more than 24 hours after the explosion. [Blake Sifton/Al Jazeera]

Purpose-built in 1970 to attract some of the Soviet Union's best scientists and their families, Pripyat enjoyed amenities unavailable in other communities. [Blake Sifton/Al Jazeera]

An amusement park in Pripyat was scheduled to open to the public during the May Day celebrations only days after the nuclear disaster. It was never used. [Blake Sifton/Al Jazeera]

Radiation levels mean Pripyat will never again be inhabitable. But much of the city has been overtaken by the nearby forest, including its ruined sports stadium. [Blake Sifton/Al Jazeera]

A steel and concrete "sarcophagus" was built around Chernobyl's destroyed reactor months after the disaster to encase hundreds of tonnes of radioactive material. In 2016 the massive New Safe Confinement structure was installed over the reactor. It is built to last for a minimum of 100 years. Hundreds of power plant staff still work in the Exclusion Zone to maintain the site. [Blake Sifton/Al Jazeera]

A Soviet over-the-horizon-radar system built to detect incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles was secretly housed in a military base near the Chernobyl nuclear plant. [Blake Sifton/Al Jazeera]

Tourists are no longer allowed to explore inside Pripyat's crumbling buildings, like the grocery store pictured here. Tour company founder Sergei Mirnyi says that's the real risk to visiting Chernobyl, "It's a dangerous area in terms of the decaying buildings and the wild animals. But we train our guides to address those issues." [Blake Sifton/Al Jazeera]

A monument in Chernobyl dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of firefighters, soldiers, engineers and miners who worked to contain the disaster. Many of the firefighters who responded to the explosion and fire at the reactor died from radiation poisoning, unprotected and unaware of the dangers they faced. "The firefighters were not prepared for the scale of the accident and the radiation. They were trained to put out fires. But what happened was unimaginable," says Sergei Mirnyi. Firefighters from across Ukraine visit the monument on the anniversary of the accident each year. [Blake Sifton/Al Jazeera]